What is Osteopathy?

Osteopathic medicine describes a tradition of medicine as taught by A.T. Still, MD, DO (1828–1917). Frustrated by the limitations of conventional medicine, Dr. Still developed a revolutionary approach to health rooted in natural law — one that recognized the body not as a collection of separate parts, but as a unified, intelligent whole. At the heart of osteopathic philosophy is a profound respect for the body's innate capacity to heal itself. Dr. Still understood that mind, body, and spirit are not separate systems — they are one living whole, inseparable in both function and healing.

He described osteopathy as the science of understanding the human body so completely — its structure, its function, its chemistry and inner intelligence that we can discover within the body the resources it needs to heal. Through treatment that works in harmony with the body's own laws, using the body’s intrinisc healing forces, the body can recover from disorganization and disease and return to its natural equilibrium of health and strength.

Applying this philosophy to the practice of medicine, Dr. Still developed a hands-on approach called osteopathic manual treatment, which uses carefully trained touch to assess the body's tissues, sense where its natural Health was being impeded, and restore the conditions for healing. Treatment involves working with all of the body's tissues — muscles, bones, nerves, fascia, the lymphatic system, and even the embryological blueprint from which the body was formed, that quiet original map still present in every cell.

Osteopathy was born in the United States in 1874 and remains the oldest continuously practiced form of modern manual medicine to originate here. Its influence on the broader world of healing has been profound. Many widely practiced bodywork traditions, including craniosacral therapy, Rolfing, and chiropractic, grew from osteopathic roots. As osteopathic physicians, we bring the full depth of that original tradition to every treatment.